BL Delegation to India

Joanna Newman, Head of HE, and Susan Whitfield, Head of APAC, are currently in Delhi for a week of meetings and consultations. The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), with whom the BL recently signed a Framework Agreement (see post below), also has a delegation in India comprising Professor Rick Rylance, Chief Executive, and Caroline Baylon, Head of International Engagement, and the two institutions are holding several joint meetings and hosting a dinner for scholars.

A full report will be posted here shortly.

South Asian research opportunities boosted by British Library and AHRC

Significant partnership launched by leading research institutions to encourage growth of South Asian studies

Signed on 4 March by Chief Executive of the British Library, Dame Lynne Brindley and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Chief Executive, Rick Rylance, the British Library and AHRC have agreed a framework agreement to enable both parties to work together to identify research priorities in India and the UK and work jointly on projects that support research in this field.

The initiative begins with a planning delegation to India meet representatives from the Government, National Archives and leading academic institutions. The aim of the agreement will be to build stronger bonds between Indian and UK-based research and Higher Education institutions.

Read more here.

5th February Round Table

Chairs: Joanna Newman (Head, Higher Education, BL), Susan Whitfield (Head, Asia, Pacific and African Collections, BL)
Attendees: Talat Ahmed (Lecturer in South Asian History, Goldsmiths), Richard Axelby (Teaching Fellow, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, SOAS), Tina Basi (Corporate ethnographer/BASAS Council member), Stuart Blackburn (Research Associate, Department of Languages and Cultures of South Asia, SOAS), Katherine Brown (Lecturer, Music, King's), Michele Burton (Head of Trusts and Foundations, Development Office, BL), Pratik Chakrabarti (Wellcome Lecturer in the History of Modern Medicine, University of Kent), Nandini Chatterjee (Lecturer in History, University of Plymouth), Andrew Cook (Senior Archivist, IOR maps, BL), Markus Daechsel (Lecturer in Modern Islamic Societies, Royal Holloway), John Falconer (Head of Visual Materials, BL), Robert Fraser (Professor, English, the Open University), Raf Gelders (Postgraduate, Comparative Cultural Studies, Ghent), Sunil Kumar (Reader in the History of Medieval India, SOAS), Javed Majeed (Professor, Department of English, Queen Mary), Margaret Makepeace (Senior Archivist, IOR, BL), Leena Mitford (Curator, South Asian Islamic Languages, BL), Antonia Moon (Senior Archivist, IOR, BL), Susheila Nasta (Chair in Modern Literature, English, the Open University), Henry Noltie (Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh), Christopher Pinney (Professor of Anthropology and Visual Culture, UCL), Avril Powell (Emeritus Reader, History, SOAS), Francis Robinson (Professor of the History of South Asia, Royal Holloway), Rick Rylance (Chief Executive, AHRC), Christopher Shackle (Emeritus Professor, South Asia, SOAS), Shafquat Towheed (Lecturer, English, the Open University), Jon Wilson (Senior Lecturer in British Imperial & South Asian History, King's), Anna Winterbottom (Postgraduate, Department of English, Queen Mary)

General suggestions relating to the BL's South Asian collections / digitisation plans made by those attending:
- There is huge demand in South Asia for access to the (often unique) material held at BL. Remote access will therefore be invaluable.
- Other South Asian countries should be involved in BL's initial consultations, alongside India.
- A 'common gateway' via BL's website to all its South Asian material would provide a useful overview as to what is actually available here.
- More work needs to be done on BL's catalogues and finding aids, many of which are considered difficult to use.
- In terms of digitisation, any digitised resource will need to be metadata rich. It will therefore by crucial to consider both the process, and how people will utilise the results. When establishing priorities - whether these should be based on 'least accessible' or 'most widely used - it will be important to take into account which will have the greater impact.

Specific suggestions for digitisation:
- Indexes
- Photographs (possibly a Flickr-style catalogue; JPEGS usable for Powerpoints and teaching)
- Indian Newspaper Reports, province by province
- 'Fortnightly Reports'
- 17th and 18th century EIC records (many of which are inaccessible in India other than in Chennai and Maharashtra)
- 18th century records relating to Bangladesh (unavailable in the subcontinent)
- Law Reports
- District Gazetteers
- Almanacs
- Drawing, in particular, natural history
- Persian manuscripts, e.g. major historical chronicles, 15th century sufi manuscripts, music (often unique)
- 19th and 20th century English and vernacular language newspapers
- Vernacular language 19th and 20th century printed publications

Suggestions for potential partnership networks within South Asia:
National Archives of Bangladesh; Asiatic Society of Bangladesh; Jadavpur University; Calcutta Botanical Gardens; Tata Institute of Social Sciences; Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts; Centre for Women's Development Studies; Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology; SARAI; Jamia Millia Islamia; University of Hyderabad; Christian and Catholic arvhives in India, e.g. United Theological College. (Exisiting oral history collaboration between Royal Holloway and Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan)

Suggestions for potential UK partners:
Universities - Leeds, SOAS, Oxford, the Open University (e.g. 'Making Britain project'), Birmingham University Library
Public libraries with large diaspora, e.g. Bradford
The National Archives
The Royal Asiatic Society

Prospective sources of funding:
Indian Kindle; the Ford Foundation; Carnegie; Gates; the Government of India; the EU

Many thanks for taking the time to attend the Round Table and for all the advice, suggestions and comments so far!